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Library Use During Economic Downturns

Griffiths, Jose-Marie and Donald W. King. "We need libraries most during recessions." The Providence Journal, July 29, 2011. EXCERPT: We conducted federally funded national surveys of public-library use between 2004 and 2008, which we updated in 2010, to establish the consequences of recessions. These studies provided abundant evidence that libraries and the services they provide are especially important during times of recession. Our data show that every year over the past two decades, use of public libraries has increased by over 2 billion visits annually.

Longshots #180: Developing Libraries' Contributions to Their Communities, Podcast (16:34) by Sarah Ann Long, interviewing Amy Eshleman, Assistant Commissioner of Strategic Planning and Partnerships at the Chicago Public Library. Ms. Eshleman served on the advisory committee for a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to the International City Managers Association and the Urban Libraries Council, which aimed to find ways libraries could help make cities stronger. Amy explains how the grant came about, what the goals of the advisory committee were, and what effect it's had on the Chicago library system and the greater library community since it started. Aug. 19, 2009.

Libraries Return Value to the Community - Dayton Metro Library - We know that libraries save money for individuals and families but what impact do libraries have on the entire community? A recent study used accounting methodology to calculate the value of the various library services provided by all the public libraries in Montgomery County. The total value came up to an impressive $131 million!

Using Return on Investment to Advocate for YA Services, YALSA blog post, Sept. 23, 2009. Excerpt: "For example, the Return on Investment (ROI) states that the cost of renting a computer for an hour at Kinko’s is $12; the library hosted 3500 hours of computer use at a value of $42,000."

Additional resources

Barron, Daniel D., Robert V. Williams, Stephen Bajjaly, Jennifer Arns, and Steven Wilson. 2005. The Economic Impact of Public Libraries on South Carolina. A study prepared for the University of South Carolina.

Hennen Jr., Thomas J. "Library Impact Fees (PDF; p. 51 of the 68-page PDF)." Public Libraries 44, no. 3 (May/June 2005): 169-175 - Library staff can develop a plan for setting library impact fees. Impact fees are set on new houses as they are being built and are designed to offset the impact that new residents will have on expanded library operations. The author provides a summary of the steps that must be taken, suggests a
recommended plan to implement impact fees, and offers advice on dealing with local officials when developing the fees.

The Library's Contribution to Your Community: A Resource Manual for Libraries to Document Their Social and Economic Contribution to the Local Community. Vaughan, Ontario: IER Planning, Research and Management Services in association with Cameron Consulting Services & C.N. Watson and Associates (and Southern Ontario Library Service), 1998. See The Library's Contribution to Your Community by Jerry McCulley - Presentation Prepared by dmA Planning and Management Services for NETLS Training Sessions – May 2008. PPT file at http://ow.ly/5P20T - Presentation discusses first edition published in 1998 and second edition published in 2007.

Return on Public Investment: Valuing Montgomery County's Public Libraries Executive Summary - What value do libraries have in their communities? How do you quantify the value of a public library's service? The four libraries of Montgomery County - Dayton Metro Library, Germantown Public Library, Washington-Centerville Public Library and Wright Memorial Library - have attempted to find answers those questions by examining how often its collections and services were used and comparing them to economic equivalent services in retail and commercial environments.

Storey, Tom. "Public Libraries Pack A Powerful $$$ Punch: They Mean Big Bucks for Their States, Communities (PDF)." OCLC Newsletter Jan/Feb/Mar 2005: 13-14. - Today's public libraries are more than technology centers, book repositories, quiet reading spaces, coffee shops or busy community centers. They are engines that pump millions of dollars into local and state economies. That’s the conclusion of two recently released studies by the University of South Carolina and the State Library and Archives of Florida. Using surveys, interviews and economic modeling, the two studies showed the sometimes forgotten financial impact that libraries have and how important they are to
creating jobs, raising wages and improving the financial well-being of a community and state.